Friday, December 11, 2009

Now was the time for the collection of sage, or rather the sages... we had been waiting for a few days with beautiful autumny weather, to go down to the hills around Argyroupoli, where our populations of Dalmatian, or Greek sage live.. The scientific name of this sage is Salvia triloba, or S. fruticosa (syn.) and its perfume and essential oil has a truly fruity, round and harmonious aroma... The leaves are soft.. as always, you can enlarge the photos by clicking on them.. We spent 4 days last week here around Argyroupoli, collecting..

The places where we collect are pretty wild, and far from any road...we set out with our boxes and cut the leaves..Here Joscha is cutting Sage leaves

Babis is advancing through the 'bush'...You can see sage leaves quite clear here in the foreground

And maybe get an idea of the unspoiled beauty of this area..

Then we carry the filled boxes back to the car up on the dirt-road

And load the car...

The car was parked just under a carob tree, Ceratonia siliqua, also called St. John's bread.. and we used this circumstance to collect some of its ripe seed pods..Every day we brought our harvest back to the distillery in Modi, to spread the plants in the drying space.. Now they have to be turned everyday, until they are dry and can be distilled..

Now, we also collect another sage species, Salvia pomifera, albeit only for use as herb or herbal tea. This sage is more similar to the common Salvia officinalis..

We collect Salvia pomifera towards the west of Crete, in the gorge near Agia Sophia, between Topolia and Elos..

Here a picture of this plant, you can clearly see the difference between these to species..

And also their habitats are different.. Below you can just see Babis collecting in the gorge...

Monday, November 16, 2009

A good day for a Myrtle leaf collection.. we met in the morning and went towards Topolia to one of our Myrtus communis populations. Babis and Joscha were pruning the plants, and the rest of us were sitting on our boxes and cutting the leaves off the branchlets into the collection boxes..

Here its Maria, Mario and Janina

Joscha, Evtichia and Spiros

Sitting in the midst of the Myrtle bushes, clipping the leaves off the branches...Below we also see Dionysia sitting, and Babis to the right

And then, after many hours of clipping, the filled boxes are stacked under an olivetree in the shade, ready to be loaded into the car..

And off we went, everybody, to enjoy a dinner together at Kostas place, Ta Platania nearby. It was getting dark, when we reached the distillery with our harvest, and began distillation. Myrtle leaves have to be distilled fresh..At three o'clock in the morning, we drew the essential oil. 180ml beautifully fragrant oil were the result of 10 people collecting a whole day...

Sunday, November 15, 2009

Now I want to tell a different story.. about what is happening after collection.. you have seen the distillery, I suppose, maybe you have visited our website and explored the basics of our distillations here..

But now I have the advantage to show you details, as seen by a photographing visitor, Ina Hviding from Norway.. with her permission, ofcourse. Often, we do not see those things which seem such a natural part of our lives- do not imagine how it must be to be a total stranger, a newcomer to an experience which is so familiar to us..

And her pictures captured both the technical aspect, as well as the magic..

We had come to the distillery in the early morning, comminuted the bay laurel leaves, as pictured earlier this month in this blog, and filled the distillery...

Ina captured the beginning of the distillation, that what we call 'its running'.. the distillate, a mixture of water, hydrolate, and essential oil components, are distilling over. The liquid is initially filtered by a sieve in the funnel, and fills the 'florentine vase', the vase which separates the hydrolate from the essential oil continuously.. you can just see the separating device below the funnel here..

Now, in the next picture, you see the florentine to the left, the container holding the hydrolate on the right. As the essential oil is, in most cases, lighter than water or the hydrolate, it will float and accumulate on top in the florentine, whereas the hydrolate will be constantly drawn from the bottom...

So, during distillation, the hydrolate is flowing constantly into its receiving container, whereas the essential oil accumulates in the top part of the florentine. Note the top tap, closed now, whereas the bottom tap allows the flow of the hydrolate.. Enlarge the pictures for a better view...

Here we see the hydrolate flowing into the receiving container.. Laurus and rosemary hydrolate is our precious aqueous basis for shampoo...so a very much appreciated 'by-product'..Then comes the magic moment- we are drawing the essential oil..now we have closed the tap for the flow of the hydrolate and opened the upper tap... by now it is dark, night...and the first oil is coming...

Here the oil is running into the final glas separator...

And then, the glas device fills, drop by drop.. I'll show you all the pictures here, because it was difficult to decide which one was the best.. and to me, they are all beautiful...

And here, in this last picture, you can see our final yield.. we have drawn some hydrolate, visible in the bottom of the glas separator in order to make sure that we got all the oil.. You can clearly see the separation, and we will drain the hydrolate below before filling the oil into

its glasbottle..

Work not over yet, the distillery has to be emptied for spent plantmaterial, cleaned thoroughly in order to be ready for the next distillation... tomorrow we'll collect Myrtus communis, myrtle leaves..Myrtle collection is a 'social' collection, as we need enough friends to come and collect the amount of plantmaterial we need to fill the distilleries in a single day... as myrtle has to be distilled fresh. So tomorrow morning we have an appointment....

Thursday, November 12, 2009

Well, these days were Vitex days and here come some pictures, taken by Ina Hviding.. First, a single splendid Vitex flower.. even though flowering time is long gone, there are single plants which celebrate a new spring, a new beginning with new flowers alongside the mature seeds.... even though the seeds of these will not mature.. Here we can see both ripe seeds and the new flowers as well, this is a rare sight..

We are cutting the racemes with the ripe seeds, and collect them into cotton bags.. you can see a bag here. Each person can collect about 2 bags full a day. At the end of the day we will bring them to their drying place and spread them.. Over the weeks, we just add the racemes and by the time, collection is finished, we will thresh the seeds of the stalks, fill them in bags and carry them to the distillery..

But first, some more pictures of collection.. you can click on any picture to enlarge it...

So here we are, always near the sea, going from plant to plant and collecting their fruits.. day after day..having a swim inbetween to cool off...

Some pictures of the habitats of this plant...magical beaches

The evenings, not less spectacular... a fire on the beach, the view of the magnificent sunsets...

Thus is our life in September and October...for the most part.. However, we also spend a few days in between for the day-collections of Myrtus communis, of Salvia pomifera, and for distillations of Laurus..

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

So then we started the collection of chastetree fruit. We collect on the south side of the island, starting from when the seeds are ripe.. this collection, is our most timeconsuming.. we collect for weeks and weeks... with a few breaks for some day-collections and distillations of other herbs...

Well, later on, had a visit from Ina Hviding, a Norwegian aromatherapist.. She had been on on of our aromatic fieldcourses here on Crete many many years ago, and now wanted to come and spend two weeks with us, in these busy times in order to learn more about aromatic plants, their wild habitats, about collection and distillation..

We started off in Kallikratis, our place in the moutains of Sfakia at 750m altitude, Ina stayed in our guestroom with a view of the surrounding mountains..

The next day we went down to the south coast for Vitex agnus castus fruit collection.. the way down there is best described by these pictures Ina took, and which I am using here with her permission..

First her view from the car, as we embark onto this magnificent road..a piece of art, it covers a difference in altitude of over 800m in only 6km with the help of 26 steep U-turns..

Then comes an overview over some of these turns, seen from above..

This road is absolutely spectacular...Some people, however, have to get used to it a bit, before they truly can appreciate...

And then, just 20 minutes later, we are down by the sea, and drive towards our chastetree plants.. looking back we see the road winding up the mountain, the road we just came down on winding like a snake...

And before us, a chastetree population with ripe fruits, ready to collect... here its Ina cutting

And here Janina and Joscha... Harvest has begun.. Again, all pictures except the one of herself, were taken by Ina Hviding..

More about Vitex, chastetree collection later, and more pictures to come

BlogCatalog

Welcome

to our blog about wildcrafted herb collections and distillation of essential oils, life in Crete's wild aromatic nature and more.. See also wildherbsofcrete.com for detailed information about us, the plants, collection and distillation, uses of essential oils and much more..You can also visit our webshop..Here you can order our oils straight from us, the collectors and distillers...

Babis and Janina June 09

About Me

Enjoying nature, plant- and human life with a ecological and holistic outlook..Collecting and distilling essential oils and hydrolates exclusively from wild growing herb populations in Crete, producing tinctures,soap and shampoo